


Trash Bag Heart

by burglebezzlement



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: F/F, Ice Cream, Kissing, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, The Medium Place, post-S3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-07-29 00:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20073475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burglebezzlement/pseuds/burglebezzlement
Summary: They haven’t talked about it, but Tahani includes shrimp on every menu she plans. They haven’t talked about it, but Eleanor reaches out for Tahani and catches herself. They haven’t talked about it, but —





	Trash Bag Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roguefaerie (samidha)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/gifts).

Eleanor peers down at Tahani’s notes. “You’ve been working on this for days. You’re not going to discover a new color scheme nobody’s ever had before.”

“You don’t know that.” Tahani scrubs her hand over her eyes. “It could be important. We need the Judge to be in the best possible frame of mind when she arrives. Setting the mood with a welcome party is an important part of that.”

“The Judge has already seen us at our worst.” Eleanor lets her hand drop to Tahani’s shoulder, lets herself notice the feel of Tahani’s skin under her fingers. “She’s here to look at the four new humans, not at us. You can take a break.”

Tahani sighs. “Well… I suppose.”

Eleanor takes her hand away before Tahani gets up.

They’ve been dancing around this for days now. Ever since the party, when John almost caught Eleanor hiding the orangutans in the orangerie, and Eleanor and Tahani ran to the poolhouse in the rain to get away from him. Eleanor couldn’t help herself — Tahani standing there in the moonlight, drenched, hair draggling over her shoulders, and still somehow impossibly beautiful. Still laughing. 

In that moment, Eleanor couldn’t not kiss Tahani. And Tahani kissed back. And everything might have already worked out, if Katrina and John hadn’t come through the door looking for the neighborhood’s Architect to report the missing orangutans.

They haven’t talked about it, but Tahani includes shrimp on every menu she plans. They haven’t talked about it, but Eleanor reaches out for Tahani and catches herself. They haven’t talked about it, but —

Eleanor knows how badly this could go — all they have is their experiment, and if the last few days go badly — if the Judge decides against them —

She’s trying not to think about it. 

“Come on,” Eleanor says. “I had Janet bring us ice cream.”

It felt silly, getting food for Tahani when Tahani is always the one to plan food for others, but the way Tahani’s face lights up when she sees Eleanor’s messy sundae bar makes it worth it. 

“All real ice cream.” Eleanor hands Tahani a scoop. “I got all the toppings, too. There’s M&Ms, and hot fudge, and crushed Oreos, and whipped cream. And pineapple. And some other fruit.” Eleanor isn’t sure about the rest of it. She recognizes the cherries and the raspberries, but she’s vague on the rest of the chopped fruit Janet has provided.

Tahani peers towards the back of the table. “Is that — is that a processed meat product?”

“What, the Slim Jims? Yeah. In case you wanted an Arizona Split. See, what you do is, you split a Slim Jim in half and arrange it on either side of two scoops of Rocky Road, and then cover it in hot fudge. Slim Jims are hard to split in half, but I figure we can pretend it’s Two Slim Jim Day at the Desert Scoop.”

“I shall pretend it is Zero Slim Jim Day,” Tahani says. She serves herself Tahitian vanilla gelato, the one Janet told Eleanor was Tahani’s favorite, with fresh berries and whipped cream.

“Your loss,” Eleanor says, dishing herself up one classic Arizona Split, double-Slim Jim.

They wander out to the porch when Michael and Jason come in to investigate the food. It’s a sunny afternoon in the Medium Place, and the lake sparkles in the distance, past the expanse of lawn and the rest of the town. The Janet babies are out, shopping and carrying ice creams they can’t eat through the square. 

“It really is lovely here now,” Tahani says. She takes another bite of the ice cream, but her eyes are troubled. “Eleanor, what do you think will happen if the experiment fails?”

“We’ll try another way,” Eleanor says. She didn’t get here by giving up. She got here by stubborn, pig-headed refusal to believe that there wouldn’t be another way.

Tahani sighs. “What if the entire thing collapses and it’s all my fault?”

“It won’t be.” Eleanor reaches over to rub Tahani’s back in comforting circles. “We’re doing something big here. I think it’s going to work, but if it doesn’t, it’s not going to be anyone’s fault.”

They watch the sun move towards the horizon, flooding the Medium Place with golden, honeyed shades of light. They finish their ice cream, and watch as the sun sets. The distant clouds turn shades of pink and then red and orange. 

They talk about the party, about all the little details that Tahani wants to get just right. Eleanor knows how unlikely it is that the Judge’s decision will hinge on anything they do at the party, but she also knows how important it is to Tahani to get this just right. They talk through a hundred possible color schemes before settling on the one Tahani selected first. 

After the sun fully sets, Janet joins Jason, and follows him down to the grassy expanse of the lawn so he can show her how to chase fireflies. 

Strangely, it’s the sight of the two of them that gives Eleanor courage. If Jason Mendoza can find love with a super-hot robot lady, what’s to say two awesome hotties like herself and Tahani can’t find love together?

_Come on, Shellstrop,_ Eleanor thinks. _Be the best version of yourself._

“Tahani?”

“Yes, darling.”

The _darling_ would give Eleanor courage, but she knows it’s just the way Tahani talks to everyone. Unless — no.

“Can we talk?” Eleanor asks, trying to ignore the way her heart pounds.

Tahani shifts in her lounge chair. “Of course.” Her words sound welcoming, but —

— but Eleanor is bad at this. She knows she’s bad at this. Emotions, and telling people what they mean to her, and all of that Good Place shirt. She’s never wanted to be vulnerable.

For Tahani, she can be brave.

“I wanted to ask you about the kiss,” Eleanor says. “Because I was into it. But I wasn’t sure if you were into it, and I didn’t want to assume —”

“Eleanor.” Tahani’s eyes have gone wide. “Yes.”

“Yes?”

“_Yes_,” Tahani breathes. She gets up and pulls Eleanor up to her, and then leans down to kiss her. It’s even better this time, messy and hot and everything Eleanor’s always wanted.

After far too short a time, Eleanor pulls back. “Yes, as in, like, feelings? More than just the making out?” She suddenly feels ridiculously insecure. “Like, not that the making out isn’t great. It is. Total hotness.”

Tahani laughs, a low sound that goes right to Eleanor’s stomach. “I’m not the type to love you and leave you.”

Eleanor leans in to kiss Tahani again. She would have been the type, once upon a time — Eleanor Shellstrop was definitely a love-and-leave kind of woman. But she’s changed. She’s learned. And she’s never letting Tahani go.

Whatever comes next — whatever the Judge’s decision brings — Eleanor knows they’ll be facing it together.


End file.
